"The Soundtrack of Working-Class Life, Sadly, Remains the Same"

"The overt class conflict of the late ’70s ended a while ago. Workers have learned to internalize and mask powerlessness, but the internal frustration and struggle remain. Any questions about quality of work life, the animating issue of 1970s unrest, have long since disappeared—despite the flat-lining of wages in the decades since. Today the concerns of the working class have less space in our civic imagination than at any time since the Industrial Revolution."

Jefferson Cowie discusses labor and the 1970s in The New York Times.

Brendan I. Koerner explains the origins of Labor Day in Slate.

And Joan Walsh interviews Cowie in Salon and prints President Obama's Labor Day speech.